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Article

Eliot Gattegno

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

28 May 2015

(b Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 1956). American classical and jazz pianist and composer. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Caine began playing piano at the age of seven. At age 12 he commenced studies with French jazz pianist Bernard Peiffer. He later studied composition with ...

Article

Sorab Modi

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

22 September 2015

(b Providence, RI, March 25, 1903; d Mesa, AZ, March 7, 2001). American pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. At the age of seven he appeared as a piano soloist and in 1918 he led his first band. His graceful and relaxed piano improvisations established him with the public and earned him the nickname “the Golden Touch.” In ...

Article

Mary Talusan

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

28 May 2015

(b Philippines, June 20, 1967). Keyboardist and guitarist of Filipino birth. He immigrated to the United States and grew up in California. He studied piano from early childhood and became proficient on several instruments, including keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums. In 1988, he joined the industrial band Mortal Wish, which changed their name to Mortal in ...

Article

Jonas Westover

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

22 September 2015

(b United States). American new Age pianist and producer. He played jazz trumpet and guitar during the 1960s in New York, and has credited John Coltrane as an early influence. He became interested in sonic healing and Eastern religions, both of which became fundamental to the transformation of his musical style. After undergoing a spiritual awakening in ...

Article

Marisol Negrónh

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

28 May 2015

(b Brooklyn, NY, March 20, 1939). American salsa pianist, bandleader, and producer. He developed an interest in both jazz and Latin music as a teenager, while he attended the New York High School of Music and Art in Harlem. A multi-instrumentalist most widely recognized for his talent as a pianist, he has been known for combining traditional Cuban sounds with innovative arrangements. He debuted as bandleader in ...

Article

Richard Wang and Brad Linde

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Pittsburgh, PA, July 2, 1930). American jazz pianist and composer. He studied with the singer mary cardwell Dawson and the pianist james Miller in Pittsburgh where he began playing professionally at the age of 11. After attending Westinghouse High School, he left in the late 1940s to join the George Hudson Orchestra. In ...

Article

Stephen Ruppenthal

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Oakland, CA, Sept 19, 1952). American guitarist, synthesizer player, and producer. He studied economics at Harvard University (BA 1976) and began performing in improvisational contexts in 1974. In 1979 he became involved in experimental rock and has since performed extensively in the United States and abroad. He has worked with, among others, Derek Bailey, David Lindley, Fred Frith, Herbie Hancock, Jerry Garcia, Bill Laswell, Eugene Chadbourne, Michael Stipe, Diamanda Galás, John Zorn, Richard Thompson, and John Oswald; he has also played with the Rova Saxophone Quartet and many free-music groups in the San Francisco Bay area, where he has been based. In both solo and ensemble performance he characteristically aims for some type of fusion of rock, jazz, non-Western, and avant-garde classical styles and focuses on “language elements of attack, articulation, pitch bend trajectory, and velocity.” His use of elastic rhythms, non-tempered scales, and widely varied timbres shows the influence of Southeast Asian and Indian musics and the blues. His extended solo improvisations (such as “The Shadow Line” on the album ...

Article

Leonidas Economou

Publication History:

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Trikala, Greece, April 7, 1922; d Athens, Greece, April 8, 1990). Greek composer and lyricist. He was of middle-class origin and finished high school in 1941. He became fascinated with rebetiko and the music of the refugees from Asia-Minor, and he was also influenced by religious Byzantine and folk music. From ...

Article

Bill Dobbins

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Jamaica, Dec 2, 1931; d Toronto, ON, April 12, 1971). American jazz pianist. His family moved to the United States when he was four years old and settled in Brooklyn. As a youth he played professionally in rhythm-and-blues bands. By fusing earthy blues elements with those of the bop style as exemplified by Bud Powell, he developed a highly accessible and personal approach to jazz piano playing which influenced many subsequent performers. After working with the saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and the singer Dinah Washington, Kelly gained attention as a soloist while performing with Lester Young and Dizzy Gillespie. He continued to work for Washington and Gillespie in the mid-1950s and also played with Benny Carter and Charles Mingus. Although he frequently led his own trio from ...

Article

Russ Musto

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b New York, NY, March 24, 1938). American jazz pianist and composer. A pianist with a distinctive voice, he started classical piano lessons at five and at 17 began studies with Madame Chaloff in Boston, where he led a trio and accompanied such visiting greats as Coleman Hawkins, Chet Baker, and Vic Dickenson. After graduating from Harvard University in ...

Article

Anne Beetem Acker

Publication History:

Published in print:

08 December 2014

Published online:

25 May 2016

Analogue string synthesizer manufactured in 1979 by Keio of Tokyo as part of the Korg range. The Lambda has a 48-note keyboard with full polyphony, three voltage control oscillators, chorus and vibrato effects, and one voltage control filter. An unusual feature is the incorporation of two envelope generators for each note. The preset orchestral sounds have limited editing capability. The presets form two groups, each with an independent output: a percussion set (pianos, clavis, and harmonics), and an ensemble set (brass, strings, chorus, and organ). The unit has a joystick that facilitates simultaneous control of pitch bends and chorus phase speed. The string sounds are particularly prized, and modern synthesizer makers include Lambda string sound samples in their libraries. The Lambda was used for live performance and recordings by many rock musicians of the late 1970s and early 1980s including Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, and Les Rockets....

Article

Michael Conklin

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Chicago, IL, May 27, 1935). American pianist and composer. His earliest exposure to jazz was as a child listening with his father to recordings of Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Meade “Lux” Lewis. At 15 he joined a jazz band that included fellow church musicians, the bass player Eldee Young and the drummer Redd Holt. He went on to study music at Chicago Musical College and De Paul University. In ...

Article

Daniel Party

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

20 January 2016

(b Mérida, Mexico, Dec 7, 1935). Mexican singer, songwriter, pianist, and arranger. Manzanero began his professional career as a piano accompanist in Mérida in 1951. After relocating to Mexico City in 1957 he worked as accompanist for renowned singers such as Pedro Vargas, Lucho Gatica, and Angélica María. His first major success as a composer came in ...

Article

Luca Cerchiari

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Philadelphia, PA, April 3, 1936; d Vorhees Township, NJ, May 24, 2008). American organist. He studied at the Combs College of Music in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School. One of the many electric organists to rise to prominence in the 1960s, he took lessons from ...

Article

Richard Crawford

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Woonsocket, RI, May 30, 1930; d State College, PA, Oct 18, 2008). American jazz pianist. He took piano lessons as a child, but learned to play jazz chiefly from listening to the radio and recordings. At the age of 12 he began to play with pickup groups at weddings and other events, and at 15 joined the musicians’ union. By ...

Article

Chadwick Jenkins

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Louisville, KY, Aug 9, 1926). American jazz singer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. She learned to play piano by ear and as a child performed at her father’s church. She studied pipe organ and music theory at Fisk University. By the late 1940s she was performing in Chicago nightclubs as a soloist and as the leader of an all-female group. Her most notable group of the period was the Syncoettes, which included Lula Roberts (formerly of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm) on saxophone. Their first recording, “My Whole Life Through,” was produced and arranged by Eddie Durham and appeared on Premium Records in ...

Article

Marc Rice

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Muskogee, OK, Jan 12, 1916; d Kansas City, MO, Dec 7, 2006). American jazz and blues pianist and bandleader. He was self-taught and learned by listening to other players and radio broadcasts, in particular, those of the Earl Hines Orchestra. He briefly attended the Tuskegee Institute, but left around ...

Article

William Kirk Bares

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Jacksonville, FL, Aug 23, 1970). American jazz pianist and composer. An avid classical and jazz pianist from an early age, he starred in Hartford’s Hall High School jazz band, won the Berklee College of Music’s Best All-Around Musician award, and studied at the New School in New York and with Kenny Werner, ...

Article

Jonas Westover

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Chicago, IL, Jan 5, 1957). American jazz pianist and composer. She studied music at the Cornish Institute in Seattle under Art Lande and gary Peacock
. She moved to the East Coast in 1982 and eventually setted in New York, where she studied with such luminaries as ...

Article

Nathan D. Gibson

Publication History:

Published in print:

26 November 2013

Published online:

13 January 2015

(b Corrigan, TX, March 29, 1909; d Beaumont, TX, Jan 1, 1967). American country music singer and pianist. Widely regarded as the King of the Hillbilly Piano Players, he drew inspiration from boogie-woogie pianists, blues guitarists, and the prominent western swing scene in East Texas where he grew up, developing his own hard-edged barrelhouse style of honky-tonk piano that bridged the gap between boogie woogie, country music, and rock and roll. Mullican began his music career in the mid-1930s as an instrumentalist with the Blue Ridge Playboys and later joined Cliff Bruner’s Texas Wanderers before forming his own band, the Show Boys, in the mid-1940s. He was signed to King Records in ...